“The web has thousands of applications, more than we can count, but it's hard to find them”, said Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of Product Management, at the Google Chrome event in San Francisco.

“The goal was to help users find great applications”, says Pichai, on why Google has moved to create a web store.

Citing that Google is there to help developers, Google demoed the web store that will be available to all Google Chrome users. The move, which should stand it apart from Google’s competitors, Firefox and Internet Explorer, will be available just days before Apple’s expected launch of its own Mac Store on the 13 December.

Although demoed before at previous preview events, Google has, it says, finished baking the service, so we the public can start having a go. Apps will range from magazines, entertainment, games, news, utilities and productivity.

Users will be able to install the web apps on their browser and then pay for them via Google checkout. The app is then stored in the cloud, but accessible via a dedicated page within the browser that is accessed via an icon at the top of the software.

Developers can monetise apps in a variety of ways, Google confirmed, highlighting both purchases and subscription services. Developers will also allow users to try before they buy. Google announced that aside from small publishers, it is also working with bigger titles like the New York Times and EA.

EA has confirmed that it will be bringing its pogo.com web-based games, specifically Poppit, to the new Chrome Web Store.

Meanwhile Amazon has launched Amazon Windows Shop, allowing people to browse the store quickly in a more visual way. Google has also confirmed that apps will work offline and will have over 500 apps in the store on launch day (Tuesday).